The famous Grimm brothers, who traveled throughout modern Germany, heard and recorded a huge number of folk tales. One of these works is the popular fairy tale "Rapunzel".
Tale of the Brothers Grimm "Rapunzel"
As already noted, the fairy tale "Rapunzel" appeared in the collection of famous brothers during their travels through the territory of modern Germany. The tale tells of a young and beautiful girl with very long hair, who from an early age was imprisoned in a high tower away from human settlements.
The fairy tale "Rapunzel" has been repeatedly translated into many languages. However, it was not created by the brothers, it was a folklore creation, which describes a collective image and customs of that time.
According to the story, a married couple lived next door to the witch. Once, a pregnant wife saw that a delicious salad was growing in the garden of a strange neighbor, and unable to overcome the desire to taste it, she convinced her husband to steal this delicacy at night. The poor husband agreed to get salad for his beloved wife, but when he was about to return with the booty, the witch caught him. Oddly enough, the witch agreed not only to let the thief go, she allowed him to take any amount of salad. In return, she took a promise from her husband to give her first child. Later the girl was born, the sorceress took the child to herself and gave her the name Rapunzel. Such an unusual name was chosen for a reason. The word rapunzel also means that delicious green salad that the girl’s real mother loved so much.
In contrast to the Disney movie of the same name, the fabulous Rapunzel was expelled by a sorceress into a dense forest for love with a prince, and the latter was blinded. Also, the beautiful girl was the daughter of poor peasants, not the royal couple. When Rapunzel and the prince met again after many years of separation, her tears returned the prince to his sight, and then they lived happily until the end of their days.
The most modern adaptation of the tale is a cartoon of the Disney studio "Rapunzel: A Tangled Story". The original fairy tale and all the existing adaptations are quite different from each other.
